ooVoo's slick app brings new features and a new look, but beauty is only skin deep and the app needs a navigational overhaul.

Video chatting service ooVoo has revamped and re-launched their Android app with a totally new design that looks very modern and gives you quick access to many of the service's new features. With more than 80 million users and the ability to support up to 12 people in a video call, ooVoo is a serious contender in the messaging space. But the company's pretty new app needs more controls and a little more work to make it easier to use.

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Navigation ooVoo clearly put a lot of effort into making their app look like a modern Android app. It's boldly orange, and uses the same slim rectangle motif that Google favors with their apps. Icons for people and actions are bounded in large, finger-friendly circles.

The trouble is that all the pieces of the app don't mesh together well. I frequently felt lost, unsure of how to get back to specific screens, and the heavy emphasis on unlabeled icons meant I didn't always know what to expect from tapping an icon. I accidentally called contacts and sent friend requests to total strangers several times.

A great example of the problematic design is the Top 5 wheel, which is like video call speed-dial. You summon it by tapping and holding your user icon (but just tapping it opens your user options), and the faces of your chosen friends appear around your icon. That is, assuming that they've added icons. If they haven't or if their icon is obscure, there's no way to tell who you're about to call. Simply adding labels would clear up this particular conundrum.

Chatting, Texting, Calling With ooVoo you can send text messages, pictures, and short video clips. Mobile devices, like my Nexus 7, are limited to 21 second clips but desktop users have no limit on recording length.

When you receive a call, even when the device is locked, a custom call screen lets you accept, decline, or respond with a message. Weirdly, I didn't receive push notifications for any of my devices when I received a text message. I couldn't find any settings to change this behavior.

Text messaging works as you'd expect, though I was surprised that ooVoo did not appear to have custom emojis or "stickers" like Viber, our Editors' Choice for Android messaging apps. You can easily send images, which appear smartly truncated in your conversation. When accessed from a PC, these appear as links, but more on that later.

I liked the "tap-tap-go" system for creating a new conversation, where you tap the kind of interaction—text, video chat, etc.—and then up to 12 recipients. This really puts the best features of ooVoo at the forefront, though weirdly you have to tap the "video chat" icon at the bottom of the main screen to access it.

Voice calls connected quickly over Wi-Fi, and had little lag—which is the big challenge for VoIP services. With my Samsung Galaxy S III connected to a data network, I experienced very little lag and the call quality was surprisingly good.

Video calls had about one second of lag time when both devices were connected to Wi-Fi. The picture quality was also frequently glitchy and unviewable, though the call itself was never interrupted. A lot of this depends on your particular network, of course. With my S III connected to the AT&T data network, my video was fairly clear, though again individual performance may vary.

ooVoo can also support voice calls to non-ooVoo members, but doing so requires you to purchase ooVoo credits. The website for purchasing those credits wasn't clear on how credits, dollars, and call time were related, something I hope ooVoo rectifies in the future.

Special Features One of the features ooVoo is touting in this version of their app are Instagram-like filters that you can apply to any photo or video—live or not—in ooVoo. These were fine for short video messages and pictures, but I found that most were barely visible during live video calls due to issues with quality.

ooVoo is pushing their short video messaging hard in this latest version of the app. Not only can you send videos, but you can add one to your user screen as a sort of permanent out-going message. It's a neat idea, but it felt gimmicky in practice and I really can't imagine updating it often enough to feel relevant.

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Max Eddy is a Software Analyst, taking a critical eye to Android apps and security services. He's also PCMag's foremost authority on weather stations and digital scrapbooking software. When not polishing his tinfoil hat or plumbing the depths of the Dark Web, he can be found working to discern the 100 Best Android Apps.
Prior to PCMag, Max wrote for the International Digital Times, The International Science Times, and The Mary Sue. He has also been known to write for Geek.com. You can follow him on...
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